The fierce Palestinian resistance to the Israeli government's recent attempts to consolidate greater control over Jerusalem highlights the fact that every step forward in the Palestinian struggle for national liberation is at the same time an internal social and political crisis for Tel Aviv. Any move by the Zionist regime to incorporate even one more inch of the occupied territories into a "Greater Israel" guarantees intensified resistance.

Netanyahu and his backers in Washington hope to lean on the cooperation of Arafat and the rest of the PLO leadership - who have increasingly turned their eyes to the bourgeoisie in recent years - to quell Palestinian resistance against the occupation force through endless negotiations. But more young fighters are stepping forward who will not be intimidated. Mahmoud Magid, 14, reflected the sentiments of many Palestinian youth when he told the New York Times, "We want to fight, not listen to empty talk."

One PLO fighter, speaking in Hebrew in an interview broadcast on Israel Radio, said, "We have the right to try by all means to get our rights, even an armed intifada."

Tel Aviv, burdened by economic troubles, is driven to press attacks against the Palestinian people and Israeli working class as well. The 500,000 workers who went on strike in Israel July 17 against cuts in their social wage reflect the explosive economic and social pressures confronting the regime.

"Opening Guns of World War III," the feature article in issue no. 7 of the Marxist magazine New International, explains, "Palestinian self-determination is irreconcilable with the class interest of the Israeli ruling class."

That's why the only road to peace for toilers of all nationalities in the Middle East is a democratic secular state of Palestine. The Palestinian people will not stop struggling until they have won their battle for land and national self- determination. In the coming battles against the Zionist rulers, working people in Israel will be able to see more clearly the necessity of unity with Palestinian fighters. Revolutionary leadership will be forged in this struggle that will be able to chart a course that advances the interests of workers and farmers throughout the region.

Working people around the world should join in picket lines, forums, and other protests to condemn the assaults by Tel Aviv against the Palestinian people. We urge readers to study and get others to read titles like New International no. 7, a valuable political weapon that enables workers to better understand the conflicts in the Middle East. It explains why the Palestinian people will win solidarity and earn respect from the oppressed around the world whenever they press forward their fight against dispossession, and why we should demand Israeli troops get out of the occupied territories now!  
 
 
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